About the Book In this heart-stopping, original debut, Hassman tells the story of young Rory Hendrix, who is determined to get out of the Reno trailer park where she lives with her bartender mother and prove shes not the feeble-minded imbecile shes been labeled. Book Synopsis A New York Times Book Review Editors Choice Rory Hendrix, the least likely of Girl Scouts, hasnt got a troop or a badge to call her own. But she still borrows the Handbook from the elementary school library to pore over its advice, looking for tips to get off the Calle--the Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother, Jo, the sweet-faced, hard-luck bartender at the Truck Stop. Rorys been told she is one of the third-generation bastards surely on the road to whoredom, and shes determined to break the cycle. As Rory struggles with her mothers habit of trusting the wrong men, and the mixed blessing of being too smart for her own good, she finds refuge in books and language. From diary entries, social workers reports, story problems, arrest records, family lore, and her grandmothers letters, Tupelo Hassmans Girlchild crafts a devastating collage that shows us Rorys world while she searches for the way out of it. Review Quotes A voice as fresh as hers is so rare that at times I caught myself cheering. . . .Id go anywhere with this writer. -- Susannah Meadows, The New York Times So fresh, original, and funny youll be in awe... Tupelo Hassman has created a character youll never forget. Rory Dawn Hendrix of the Calle has as precocious and endearing a voice as Holden Caulfield of Central Park. -- The Boston Globe A lyrical and fiercely accomplished first novel...In Hassmans skilled hands, what could have been an unrelenting chronicle of desolation becomes a lovely tribute to the soaring, defiant spirit of a survivor. -- People Moments of strange beauty enhance our sense of the Calle community....[Hassman] makes Rorys milieu feel universal. -- Megan Mayhew Bergman, The New York Times Book Review Powerful...Rory transcends her bleak situation through dark humor and unaccountable smarts. -- San Francisco Chronicle This amazing debut spills over with love, but is still absolutely unflinching and real. -- Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake About the Author Tupelo Hassman graduated from Columbias MFA program. Her writing has been published in the Portland Review Literary Journal , Paper Street Press , Tantalum , We Still Like , and Zyzzyva , and by 100 Word Story, Five Chapters.com, and Invisible City Audio Tours.